TORONTO (CP) - A U.S. civilian border-watch group is expanding its operation to the 49th parallel.
For the month of October, the Minuteman Civil Defence Corps will take watch from their cars and lawn chairs, with binoculars at the ready, in eight northern U.S. states bordering seven Canadian provinces.
The volunteer group will have observers in Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. Some posts will be on border watch 24/7.
The Minutemen report to border officials when they observe individuals trying to illegally enter the U.S.
Peter Buck of the Minutemen's New England chapter said the American government is failing to supply the manpower needed to secure the northern border.
"People may be aware of the problem in the southwest but not be aware that the largest non-militarized border in the world, the border between the United States and Canada . . . is completely open," he said in a phone interview from Massachusetts.
"Last year we had 3,000 (illegal immigrants) that got caught in New York and New England."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended 1.1 million people attempting to cross the border illegally last year, 600,000 in Arizona alone where the state borders with Mexico.
There are more than 11,000 border patrol agents in the U.S. with 1,000 stationed along the Canada-U.S. frontier.
Washington-based Minuteman Tom Williams spoke recently with a patrol agent who said the northern border Canada is just as vulnerable as anywhere else in the country.
"People still sneak across here all the time," Williams recounted. "They may not come in the hundreds, or in the thousands, but they still do come, and any one of them could be carrying a suitcase bomb for all we know."
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pledged to beef up border security to prevent terrorists and illegal weapons from entering the country.
Focus groups held earlier this year by polling group Ekos Research Associates for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada surveyed U.S. residents on Canadian national security and found that they do believe Canada does take security seriously.
Those polled also believed terrorists were more likely to come from within the U.S. or through Mexico, and none cited Canada as a primary threat.
However, in recent months confidence in northern border security has been tested.
Three men from Surrey, B.C., were charged by Washington state officials last July with digging a tunnel roughly the length of a football field under the border to smuggle marijuana.
U.S. Customs spokesman Barry Morrissey says while he commends their passion, the Minutemen are interfering in work better handled by trained agents.
"We do ask for citizens to contact us with information that might lead us to methods or areas of smuggling (but) we do not endorse or condone citizen volunteer groups actually go and patrol," Morrissey said.
"We do not see a place for them. We believe the job of securing the borders should be done by professional law enforcement."
Canadian officials agree that Minuteman-style groups would have no place north of the border.
"We certainly don't see any need for that kind of activity on the Canadian side. Our immigration officers are perfectly capable of ensuring people who come into Canada from the United States are probably vetted and if inappropriate aren't allowed in," said Alan Lennon, national union representative for the Canada Employment and Immigration Union.
The CEIU represents 1,700 immigration border services officers.
Demonstrators gathered in Washington State over the weekend to protest the Minutemen's expanded border watch.
"If there's a problem with the border and border issues we need to sit down together and talk about it, not walk around carrying guns or taking the law into our own hands," protester Rosalinda Guillen said.
